Driving Miss Daisy To Gilbert Arizona Temple With Costco Bumps

Sunday morning, on the way to Santan Village in Gilbert, Miss Daisy directed the driver to drive to the site of the Gilbert Arizona Temple, an edifice erected by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Mormon presence looms large in the Valley of the Sun.

I first saw this particular temple under construction way back in 2012. The finished product is an impressive piece of church architecture.

Wikipedia has a short article about the Gilbert Arizona Temple which elaborates on details about how it came to be at this location and in this shape.

After driving around the temple Miss Daisy directed the driver to drive across the Loop 202 freeway to Costco, which Miss Daisy determined was too busy to stop at. The followup directions directed the driver deeper into Santan Village, which then had Miss Daisy declaring she had never been at this location previously.

Leaving Santan Village Miss Daisy directed the driver to head west on Williams Field Road, which becomes Chandler Boulevard when it enters Chandler, and soon arrives at the heart of Chandler, that being the city center Old Town zone of Chandler.

The driver on his own initiative turned north on Arizona Avenue, heading to another Costco, at which we had shopped two days prior. Soon thereafter Miss Daisy claimed she had never been on this road, that there was no Costcos on this road and that she had no idea where her driver was driving her.

A couple minutes later the driver pulled into the Costco parking lot, which had Miss Daisy claiming she had never been at that Costco, and that she thought the driver was talking about a Costco on the corner.

What corner? the driver asked.

I don't know said Miss Daisy.

Soon we found ourselves inside Costco loading up on Kirkland bottled water, cookies, tomatoes and pizza.

The driver then returned Miss Daisy to her current home base and then returned to his own home base where he is currently typing and counting the days until he is back to relatively peaceful Texas...

I Got Nothing At Fort Worth's Trader Joe's Except A Parking Lot Headache

Hunting For A Trader Joe's Parking Space

Well, I have now been to Fort Worth's Trader Joe's.

First off, let's talk about the parking.

The Trader Joe's parking lot is too small. The parking lots of the enterprises around Trader Joe's have big NO TRADER JOE'S PARKING signs. Along with a warning that violators will be towed.

I exited the Trader Joe's parking lot and eventually found street parking. I'd say half or more of the vehicles parked to shop at Trader Joe's were parked on the street.

The last time I was in a Trader Joe's was in 2004, in the Seattle zone. I don't remember which of the towns south of Sea-Tac International Airport was the location of that Trader Joe's. Maybe it was the town of Sea-Tac. I'm starting to lose my memory of place names in Washington. Like right now I'm drawing a blank as to the names of the towns near the airport. Federal Way, that's one I remember.

Damn age related memory loss.

Changing the subject from my memory loss back to Trader Joe's.

I left the Seattle zone Trader Joe's having bought a lot of goodies. I left the Fort Worth Trader Joe's having bought nothing. Several of the items I bought in the Seattle zone Trader Joe's were put in my basket after sampling a free sample at various sampling locations in the store. I remember several cheeses, crackers, bread, all into the basket after a sample.

Trader Joe's 19 Cent Bananas

The Fort Worth Trader Joe's has a "Sampling Station." I did no sampling. It appeared the sample was peach salsa. I knew I did not want peach salsa, so no need to sample.

I also bought no bananas. Bananas at Trader Joe's were 19 cents each. I'm not used to buying bananas via anything but the per pound method.

The Fort Worth Trader Joe's is a lot bigger than the one I went to in the Seattle zone. I would have thought with a full parking lot and cars parked on the street that the store would be human gridlock.

As you can see in the picture, it was not human gridlock.

There also were no lines at the checkouts. I'd read the checkout lines were long back when the Fort Worth Trader Joe's opened. I wonder how nightmarish the parking situation was at that time?

When Costco came to the D/FW Metroplex, the first one opened in Fort Worth. I was very happy to learn of this development. Costco is one of the things I greatly missed, that I was used to regularly going to, whilst being a Washingtonian.

I remember going to the Grand Opening of the Fort Worth Costco and being very disappointed. It had been Texasified. Walking in to the Fort Worth Costco I was visually assaulted by dozens of horse saddles. And Remington statues. There was no sushi, no coffee roaster, none of the Costco things I was missing.

Trader Joe's Fort Worth Stockyards Mural

Then a Costco opened in Southlake, a more Yankee-fieed area of the D/FW Metroplex. The Southlake Costco was much more like a Washington one, than the Fort Worth one.

Still no sushi though.

Nothing I saw in the Fort Worth Trader Joe's made me think it'd been Texas-ified.

Though there is a mural of the Fort Worth Stockyards on the wall at the back of the store.

It Is The Dawn Of A New Day In Texas Able To Buy Booze At Costco In Fort Worth & Washington

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on Day 9 of the next to last month of 2011 it looks like the pool has turned into an ice rink. But, it'd take at least another 10 degrees colder than the current 42, for that to happen.

I was peacefully slumbering this morning when my phone played its cheerful, unwanted wake up tune.

It was Miss Puerto Rico calling from the airport. I let the call go to voice mail. My one longtime reader may remember I used to provide taxi service for Miss Puerto Rico to the airport. That ended on the day Obama was inaugurated.

In other news, yesterday was election day in America. For the most part election days in Texas are sort of quiet. There were a lot of proposed amendments to the constitution being voted on in Texas. I don't recollect seeing a single sign trying to get me to vote yes or no on any of the proposed amendments.

Texas proposals 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9 and 10 were approved by the voters, while Proposals 4, 7 and 8 were rejected.

I don't know if Texas has the Referendum and Initiative method of putting an issue on a ballot.

In Washington I always had a lot of Referendums and Initiatives to vote on. A citizen, or group, in Washington, can take the initiative and put an Initiative on the ballot if they are able to get enough signatures on  a petition to do so.

COSTCO was behind an interesting Initiative that passed yesterday in Washington. Initiative 1183 removed the last vestige of Prohibition from Washington, allowing private retailers, like COSTCO, to sell whiskey, gin and other hard liquor. Prior to Initiative 1183 one could only buy those items from state run liquor stores. COSTCO spent $22 million into its campaign to get this Initiative passed.

Texas still has many vestiges of Prohibition. Some places totally dry, some totally wet, some just a little damp. I live in a totally wet zone, bordering a totally dry zone. This causes 4 liquor stores to be at the Randol Mill Road exit from Loop 820, because that is the nearest entry point from the freeway to the wet zone I live in.

The town I live in, Fort Worth, being wet, I guess, for some reason has long allowed the Fort Worth COSTCO to sell hard liquor. But grocery stores in Fort Worth are not allowed to sell hard liquor.

I don't know why.

COSTCO likely figured out what local palms it needed to grease so it could sell whiskey to the locals.

I guess I'll stop thinking about how easy it is to get drunk in Fort Worth and go swimming now.

February Texas Heat Wave & Grapefruits

I think I'm on LOST and I've been Flashed ahead to summer. I'm sweltering here. Windows open. Verge of turning on the A/C. That just ain't right. It's barely February. Let's see if the ceiling fan brings some relief from this humid hothouse.

As predicted earlier, I went to Grapevine today, did me some hiking on the Horseshoe Trails. That's some kids, in the first picture, debating whether or not they want to go down a steep dropoff on the BMX bike part of the trails. They opted out.

Gar the Texan had the most spectacular bike wreck I ever personally witnessed on these trails. He flew right over his handlebars and then did a head tuck rollover, like some Olympic gymnast doing some sort of fancy dismount. Afterwords he did get a case of the vapors, but the wreck was spectacular, I think of it whenever I go past the spot where Gar the Texan flew.

In the middle of winter the Horseshoe Trails looks barren of greenery. Give it a couple months and it will be back looking like a jungle. Had my biggest Cottonmouth encounter, ever, on these trails. I don't freak out over poisonous snake encounters anymore, not like I did when I was first in Texas. Back then I'd warily walk the long driveway to get my morning paper, snake stick in hand, nervously keeping an eye out for anything that slithered.

Before going to the Horseshoe Trails I ended up going to Costco, despite earlier saying I wasn't going to. Best free sample lunch ever.

After Horseshoe Trails it was on to Sprouts Farmers Market. Found way more good stuff than usual today. Sprouts, and other grocery stores here, have these sanitized towel things that people rub all over their grocery cart's handlebar. I've never done this. A lady blocked my way while she sanitized her grocery cart. I told her I've never done that. I asked her if I'm in any sort of danger. She laughed, but did not answer my important question.

I got some pork products at Sprouts today. I see BBQ in my future for tomorrow. They had Texas Ruby Red Grapefruits, again. Last weeks were so sweet I got a lot more. I've run out of my mom & dad supplied citrus except for a couple dozen oranges.

Enough of my grocery shopping report. I must figure out something to try and make it quit being so sweltering in here. The spinning ceiling fan only offered a little relief.

Rockledge, Lake Grapevine, Costco and a Camera

Well, I've had me a good day. It started off with French Toast topped with Lemon Curd and went uphill from there.

Oh, I forgot about my YouTube distress. I guess I blocked that out and went on to have that good day thing happen.

So, I went up to the Southlake Costco for the free sample lunch. It was being real good today due to all these vendors were pushing Super Bowl goodies. Everything from Meatballs to Chicken Wings to Fajitas to Hot Damn Tamales to a new Kirkland Signature brand energy drink that made me gag.

After Costco it was off to Lake Grapevine and Rockledge Park to do some hiking along the beach. There are a lot of big boulders which makes for good exercise. There were a lot of people there today, due to the warm temperatures. Lots of bikers, hikers, boaters and guys fishing.

I saw one disturbing scene of 3 grown men with a group of little boys. They were high up on the cliff. There used to be a fairly good trail along there, but the flood of a few years back did a lot of erosion damage. Now, it is just scary. I turned on my camcorder and aimed it at them, expecting one of the kids to fall.

To get around a washed out part, they had the kids sliding down a makeshift trail, one guy at the end of the slide and another down below, I assume to try and catch a kid if he fell too far.

I shouldn't be too judgemental, I guess. I was known to put my nephews in danger, a time or two, when they were little, but never like this. I do remember nephew Joey and me hiking up Sauk Mountain in the Skagit Valley when the trail was covered with ice and it was snowing, lightly. We made it to the top. Joey brought up that nephew in danger incident when I saw him this past summer. He remembers it fondly. I remember it as what the hell was I thinking?

I forgot to mention. I finally got a new camera. Today Costco had the Canon one that I wanted. I'd narrowed my search down to a Canon and a waterproof, shockproof Olympus. The battery for the new camera is charging. I probably won't get around to figuring it out til tomorrow.

Today's pictures were taken with my video camcorder. I see something, shoot a few seconds of video and then extract the "picture" in Windows Moviemaker. It works fairly well, as a stop gap measure til a new camera could be found. Which it was, found I mean, at Costco.

After Costco I went to Sprouts Farmers Market and got all sorts of good stuff. Including giant Texas Red Grapefruits. I was down to only 4 remaining of the huge supply of grapefruits my mom and dad imported into Texas from Arizona with them, earlier in the month. I still have lemons and oranges from the mom/dad delivery.

It got warm today. I have the windows open. It's time to close them. The sun is starting to set. It goes down fast here.

Still Freezing In Texas

Okay, I know I've whined about it before, but I'm in a whining mood, so I'm gonna whine about it again. As in the schizophrenic weather of Texas is so annoying.

Yesterday was so warm I had my windows open and was tempted to turn on the A/C. Then today it's back in the DEEP FREEZE. I think our high for the day was 34. I think it was freezing when I went hiking on the Horseshoe Trails on Lake Grapevine after shopping at a super crowded Costco, that had more people cramming the aisles than when I was there before Christmas.

Where is this recession I keep hearing about?

Well, okay, other than all those shoppers, lots of cars on the road and restaurants with lots of cars in the lots, I did see some signs of the bad stuff that's going on. I saw a Circuit City with its going out of business sign. I saw the Alan Young GMC dealership with its empty lot, due to GMC shutting it down and taking the cars. I saw a lot of people having a free lunch eating Costco samples today. Including me. Yes. Hard times.

These cycles of HOT & COLD are wearing me down. It's like that torturous month I spent last summer in Tacoma, miserably shivering the entire month, for more reasons than the temperature. It took me quite some time to recover from that month last summer. Bouts of cold, like today, bring back the pain, sort of like post-traumatic stress syndrome, I suppose.

Well, the heater just came on, so warm air is now blowing down on me, giving me temporary relief from the cold. For now.

I need a tropical vacation. I hear Puerto Rico is nice.

Hiking Lake Grapevine & Costco

It's just half past 3 and I've already had myself a good day. I think starting the day with an icy swim makes the rest of the day much more pleasant than it would be otherwise.

Due to the temps being in the low 80s there weren't a lot of people out braving the cold at Lake Grapevine. So, parking was easily had.

I went to Costco before I went to Rockledge Park at Lake Grapevine. I needed printer ink. It'd been awhile since I bought printer ink. It was over $50. My printer cost less than $50. I also got a pizza. You can get a pretty good lunch wandering around Costco getting samples.

Almost all the sample giving people seemed to be old and German. And then when I went back to the food court to get my pizza there was a lady standing by the pizza window and I asked if she was waiting for a pizza. She also had a thick German accent as she said "I am #97, you are #96. Your pizza is ready, he just called your number."

I asked how she knew my pizza number. She said she was standing behind me when I ordered mine.

I wonder why there are so many old Germans in Southlake at Costco? Is Gar the Texan's latest wife moving a lot of her relatives over?

I hiked along the beach at Lake Grapevine. I like doing that. It's very relaxing. I only saw two odd things today. One was a rogue out of nowhere wave way out in the lake. The other was this guy on some sort of strange waterski that was sort of like a hydroplane. He'd hit the wake and do a total flip. I must have seen him flip a dozen times. Only on two of the times did the flip not work.

I saw gas for $2.57 at several locations in Grapevine. I didn't need any so I got none.

I got lots of good stuff at Sprouts Farmers Market, including a bag of something called Texas Sweet Oranges. My mom sent me home with a backpack stuffed with something called Arizona Sweet Oranges that were the best oranges I've ever had. I'm hoping these Texas ones are like that. I'm prepared to be disappointed.